Subtitle: Battles over Building Sports Stadiums
Author: Kevin J. Delaney, Rick Eckstein
Subject: Sociology/Public Policy/Sports
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3343-0
Pages: 240 pp. 11 b&w illus.

View the table of contents for Public Dollars, Private Stadiums
Read an excerpt from Public Dollars, Private Stadiums

Description: A revealing account of recent battles over publicly financed sports stadiums

Praise for Public Dollars, Private Stadiums

Winner of the Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award

Selected for the "Authors meet critics" session at Eastern Sociological Society

"This volume, with coverage of the very latest stadium projects and a qualitative methodological approach, complements nicely the more quantitative analyses done largely by economists in the 1990s literature cited above. A readable volume, with good notes and bilbiography. Highly recommended."-Choice

"This revealing, dead-on investigation of the modern-day sports stadium boondoggle, and its often-devastating impact on American cities, is an essential read for anyone, sports fan or not, who wants to avoid getting fleeced."Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times columnist and former columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Time magazine

"Public Dollars, Private Stadiums helps us understand the political processes involved in using public money for new sports stadiumsIt is a must read for anyone interested in this important new issue."

Richard E. Lapchick, founder and director emeritus of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University

"Readable and smartKevin Delaney and Rick Eckstein show how conflicts over sports subsidies are emblematic of the kinds of power relationships that prevail in each community."Lee Clarke, author of Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents to Tame Disaster

This book provides an eye-opening account of recent battles over publicly financed stadiums in some of Americas largest cities. The authors interviews with key decision makers present a behind-the-scenes look at how and why powerful individuals and organizations foist these sports palaces on increasingly unreceptive communities.

In the face of studies demonstrating that new sports facilities dont live up to their promise of big money, proponents are using a new tactic to win public subsidies¾ touting intangible "social" rewards, such as prestige and community cohesion. The authors find these to be empty promises as well, demonstrating that new stadiums may exacerbate, rather than erase, many social problems.

Public Dollars, Private Stadiums should be read by everyone with an interest in the future of sports and our cities.

Kevin J. Delaney is an associate professor of sociology at Temple University and author of Strategic Bankruptcy. Rick Eckstein is an associate professor of sociology and assistant director of the Center for Peace and Justice Education at Villanova University, as well as the author of Nuclear Power and Social Power.